Leaders Index 3-24-23

The major averages opened lower and bounced around in negative territory until some buying came in and drove prices moderately higher. All the major averages finished high in their intraday trading ranges due to the late strength. The New York averages were the strongest with the SPX gaining .56% on the day. The COMPQ and the NDX were higher by .31% and .30% respectively. Volume was lower across the board, showing that large institutional players were not heavily involved in yesterday’s trading. Leading stocks were lower with the leaders index declining .88% on the day. The index closed high in its trading range on higher and above average volume. Other ETFs of leading growth stocks were lower as well. The market ended up in positive territory on Friday after a weak start. Overall it was not an impressive session as the market continued its recent pattern of higher closes on lower volume. There are positive signs as there have been some decent breakouts, although so far they are not producing strong gains. The As minus Es turned up yesterday which could be an encouraging sign, but I would like to see more than one day before I get to excited. The market seems like it is continuing to search for a bottom but can’t really get much going on the upside. It is looking more and more like the 2002 to 2003 bottom where the market bottomed but could not get any real upside action going for several months. I continue to be bullish on the longer term, but it looks like there is more work to be done before the market is ready to begin a real upside move. Jerry